Possibly, however, the family may be canonically legitimate, in which case it is the most senior extant male-line branch of the Capetians, and senior to the Bourbons which reign today in Spain and Luxembourg and have in the past ruled France, Naples and Sicily, as well as to the House of Braganza, also Capetians by illegitimate descent.
Pierre de Bourbon (1464–1529), chamberlain of Louis XII of France;[2] married in 1498 Marguerite de Tourzel d'Alègre, heiress to the barony of Busset; this alliance was the start of the House de Bourbon-Busset;
Louis de Bourbon (1465–1500);
Jacques de Bourbon (1466–1537), Jesuit priest.
Although the marriage between Louis and Catherine took place before Louis was ordained a priest, which would have made it canonically impossible for him to marry, it was kept secret, being against the interests of Louis XI of France. French alliances in the Low Countries were not compatible with those of the House of Egmont. The French king therefore never recognized any children of the marriage as legitimate. There was a de facto legitimization of the Bourbon-Bussets when they were allowed the treatment of a Cousin du Roi. For the rest of history, the Bourbon-Bussets never claimed anything more than what they had, and constantly remained faithful servants of the Bourbon kings.
Historical evolution
Members of the Bourbon-Busset family later acquired the titles of count of Châlus and count of Lignières.
Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset (1898–1984), daughter of the count of Lignières, is a great-great-granddaughter of Jacques, youngest son of the 8th Count of Busset (1722–1793), making her Jacques' (the 14th count) fourth cousin once removed. She got married in 1927 with a royal Bourbon relative, Xavier, titular duke of Parma and Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain. Although Madeleine brought as dowry the chateau of Lignières, at the time this marriage was not accepted as dynastic by the titular duke, Xavier's elder brother, obtaining dynastic recognition retroactively around the time of the engagement of Xavier's eldest son to the daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in 1964.
As the wife of Xavier, Madeleine was, however, proclaimed Queen consort of Spain by the remaining Carlists in 1952. Widowed in 1977, she remained a staunch adherent of her husband's Carlist principles. She excluded her elder son from the funeral of her husband as disloyal to his father's traditionalist Carlism, recognizing instead the claim to Carlist leadership and to Lignières of her younger son, Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma, (self-proclaimed) Duke of Aranjuez, who continued the rivalry with his brother as Carlist pretender.
A senior male-line descendant of the Bourbon-Bussets was the French writer Jacques de Bourbon-Busset (1912–2001), member of the French Academy. President Charles de Gaulle was once quoted telling him: Had it not been for the decision of King Louis XI, you might well be head of state of France today, instead of me. Another notable author of the Bourbon-Bussets is French-Spanish screenwriter and producer Luis Ruben Valadéz-Bourbon,[3] known for his philanthropy with the Human Rights Campaign and cinematic work with DC Comics.